Customer Reviews

Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka (Jewish Encounters)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Rodger Kamenetz book is about my life too. And I did not write this book. But his observation that Kafka used a Talmudic thinking to write is documented brilliantly. His observation that Kafka lived an eternal Yom Kippur, being obsessed whether he is judged by every word he said, stemming from a perfectionism impossible to achieve, it's about me and others like me. Kafka never crossed the door of the Law, he never reached the Castle, he does not know the reason why K dies in the Trial. Yet these questions are part of his life, much beyond the oversimplification of Kafka as a scribe about an absurd world, where each time we have an argument with a boss, a teacher and a parent we feel identified.

Kafka has no answers, but an "unending analysis", same as Talmudic, Midrashic, and Mishnaic commentaries. Kafka's "The Trial", for example, embodies the particular techniques of rabbinic hermeneutics. These are dry words.At a personal level, the three levels of soul perceived by the humans, Nefesh (the animal soul), Ruach, the wind towards Nesahama, the spiritual soul, must be visible. Most people relate the word "soul" with Nefesh. If you listen to soul jazz music, you feel the Neshama

I never understood the Kafka's Metamorphosis, until my mother had a stroke trying to get a bottle of milk from the fridge. She became an insect-like and many people started treating her as an insect. "There must a treatment" she said to me. "I can not stay like this, for the rest of my days" It is this treatment that I was unable to find for her than haunts me even today.

Joseph Roth wrote, when in stress, we do not seek the knower, we seek the believer. My mother had a good medical care, but she had no hope, something that those miracle- rabbis . not the doctors, can give us. Hope, Believe, because there is something above us that we have no the capacity to understand. But Rabbi Nachman knows more secrets, he knows more than he is allowed to reveal. If he does reveal, he pays a dear price: his son, his wife and even his own life, were at stake.

I see how #1 on Amazon is the memoir of an ex president. #1 in Sales should be Roger Kamenetz book. But he writes for a special group of people that have experienced Kabbalah, not only read about it or attend the fad of it. Reading the book is easy, as I read a thriller. I am not the only one, but we are hardly as many as the the ex President readers or bass Rolling Stone player readers, speaking through the pen of professional ghost writers who beautify their lives beyond what they really are.

Rodger is also a ghost writer, but not for a human flesh person like George Bush or Keith Richard. He gives us the voice that come from somewhere, perhaps ultimately from the the Divine that both Rabbi Nachman faith and Kafka secularism accepted as real. Mr. Kamenetz has Ruach Neshama

BOOK LIST REVIEW OF BURNT BOOKS
Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka (Jewish Encounters)

Whether he's writing about Judaism, Buddhism or prayer and dreams, Kamenetz's mission is to discern connections. In his most delving book, he traces the hidden links between a literary nineteenth-century Hasidic rabbi and a quintessential modern secular Jewish writer.
Rabbi Nachman, a "Jewish shaman" , and a contemporary of the Brothers Grimm, smuggled the kabbalah into fiction to extend the reach of his teachings. Kafka, concerned about the spiritual cost of modernity, "nourished himself with the tales of Hasidic rebbes." Both men were ascetics; both died young of tuberculosis; both questioned "the seeming absence of divine justice"; and both asked trusted intimates to burn their work after their deaths.
Kamenetz's dramatic and revelatory double portrait is built on a solid foundation of elegantly explicated Jewish thought deepened by the story of his journey to Ukraine to visit Rabbi Nachman's grave. Here is a whole new slant on Kafka, a unique and affecting portrait of a creative holy man, and a radiant inquiry in celebration of how both sacred texts and great literature are open to "infinite interpretation."
--Donna Seaman, Book List

Rodger Kamanetz's BURNT BOOKS: RABBI NACHMAN OF BRATSLAV AND FRANZ KAFKA comes from a teacher who for many years taught a course in Prague on Franz Kafka. His consideration of the unexpected connections between Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman and Kafka - which includes spiritual connections and even their co-invention of new forms of storytelling that explore the search for meaning in an unjust world - makes for an outstanding survey any Jewish studies collection should have!

Rodger Kamenetz, of The Jew in the Lotus fame, takes on Kafka and Rebbe Nachman in Burnt Books. Kamenetz sets a course to show us the similarities and differences between both men, and most importantly, the points of contact and departure of their respective fiction and stories. Both use parable to advance their own spiritual agendas. Both burned books and manuscripts they felt missed the mark (Kafka) or revealed esoteric secrets (Rebbe Nachman). Both were questioners, doubter, seekers and mercurial.

Kamenetz does a good job plotting these intricate courses, but sometimes gets lost and the narrative get tangled. We go from Kafka to the Rebbe to Kementz's trip to Uman with no apparent sense. There is a great deal of repetition that could have been eliminated, and in the end, the sheer weight of Kafka's and Rebbe Nachman's unbending personalities make us wonder if there really is a connection between these two men worth extended investigation.

With that in mind, Kamenetz has still written a book that raises interesting questions about faith, doubt, and the art of writing. He just takes a while to get us there.

A brilliantly researched and sensitively executed exploration of how the lives of these two great men intertwined across space and time. Kabbalah (the Jewish Mystical tradition) tells of letters within letters, words within words, and worlds within worlds. Kamenetz allows himself to be guided by these two masters ever deeper into the tangled orchard of Jewish identity.

Professor Roger Kamenetz tries to show the connections between Rabbi Nachman (1772-1844) and Franz Kafka (1883-1924). Both burnt some of their writings. Kafka felt his writings were not as good as they should be. Nachman thought the opposite, that his writings were too lofty and not fit for his generation. Both had ample opportunity to burn all of their writings themselves, but requested others to do it after their death. No one knows why they did not burn the writings themselves. The people to whom they entrusted them interpreted this bizarre behavior to mean that they really wanted them preserved. Both wrote unusual tales. Kamenetz argues that Kafka's writings show the influence of mysticism, specifically the Kabbala, just as Nachman's. Both died young of tuberculosis.

Kamenetz recognizes that Kafka had an outstanding literary ability, while Nachman did not. Nachman's stories are "crude," "lack polish," "deformed," "distorted," "confused," "verbose," and "ignoble in form." His stories had to be rewritten by Martin Buber and Nachman's disciple.

Kamenetz's comparisons are interesting, but not persuasive. For example, there is no evidence that Kafka's writings reflect Kabbala. Suggestions of Kabbala can only be found by reading it into words whose plain meaning says something else. Even Kamenetz admits that many of Kafka's tales reflect the terrible cruel destructive relationship that he had with his father. And, as previously stated, Nachman lacked Kafka's writing ability, and both wanted their books burnt for opposite reasons. Both appear to be psychologically damaged. But Nachman was manic-depressive, while Kafka was unable to break with his domineering abusive father. More significantly, the goals of the pair were radically different.

Kafka's stories reflect frustration. This is seen in The Imperial Message where a letter is sent to a man by a dying king, which never reaches him. Similarly, in Before the Law, a man sits before a door leading to the law hoping that he can enter and learn what he seeks, but he is unable to enter, and dies before the door. Nachman's tales, in contrast, are designed to teach lessons. When a message is sent, it is received. His stories are comforting. They stress that there is no need for frustration; God can communicate with people and people with God.

Kamenetz also reads mysticism into Nachman's tales that may not be present. He states that they hint at the Sefirot, the ten layers of God. It appears however that Nachman wrote most of his stories to teach moral lessons, how to behave, and how to relate to God. Even if they hint of the Sefirot, they do not reveal the inner workings of these layers.

Over 20,000 male pilgrims swarm into Uman to visit Rabbi Nachman's grave around Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year holiday. It is no surprise that these people are so diverse - Hasidic Jews with disheveled beards, secularists, and seekers after life's meaning - because each sees something else in the rabbi's tales, even things the rabbi never intended, as Professor Kamenetz.

Roger's latest offering comparing the lives and story telling techniques of Franz Kafka and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is a well researched tome.

Unfortunately, the book drags on endlessly. When it finally comes to a conclusion it's a relief.

Others have pointed out the similarities between Kafka and Rabbi Nachman but none have belabored the point as long.

Is it a biography of both that tries to merge them in the middle?

Is it the claim that Kafka is the reincarnation of Rabbi Nachman?

Is it the telling of the tale of his journey to Uman with his Franz Kafka coffee mug?

It's hard to say.

If you are a dedicated fan of Kafka or Rabbi Nachman, you may enjoy the book.

If you are looking for the latest "Jew And The Lotus", keep looking.

Save your money and buy a book worth owning. Burnt Books is just the latest academic trying to cash in on the industry of Kafka. The book isn't about Kafka or the legend of Kafka, it's about the author, and unfortunately for the reader, Kamenetz is boring and dull.